The game of golf is played by over 26 million people in the United States, and is expected to continue to grow in popularity through at least 2020. Internationally, the popularity of golf is even more rapidly on the rise, including in Europe (e.g., France, Germany, and Russia), Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Mexico, and in many South American countries. In fact, in 2016, golf will be part of the Olympics for only the third time in the Games' history, and the first time since 1904.
Anybody who has ever played golf or seen golf being played understands its very challenging nature. Duffers, amateurs, and professionals alike are all typically interested in finding ways to improve at the game, for instance by maximizing distance while maintaining accuracy. Golfers of all ability levels invest hundreds-of-thousands of dollars a year practicing and playing the game in an effort to improve. Likewise, golfers of all ability levels invest hundreds-of-thousands of dollars on lessons and various tools to help improve their games, including impact tape, club weights, hitting mats, hitting cages, swing speed radar devices, swing plane trainers, wrist braces, arm braces, stance correctors, folding clubs, buckets of balls at the driving range, and lessons from golf professionals.
One sure-fire way to be a better golfer is to hit the ball with the correct portion of the golf club head more consistently. Most golf club heads are designed such that balls struck by a certain portion of the head—typically near a center on a face of the head—will travel farther and straighter than balls struck by other portions of the head. This certain portion of the head is sometimes referred to as a club head's “sweet spot.” However, during the course of a swing, and directly thereafter, it is difficult for a golfer to know exactly which part of the face made contact with the ball, and thus whether the golfer hit any part of the sweet spot.
Although both sophisticated and simplistic tools exist for informing a golfer as to the portion of the club face on which the ball hit, they are deficient for a variety of reasons. Stage simulators represent one example of a sophisticated tool that allows a golfer to know the location of a ball strike. They require scheduled time, however, can be costly, and may require more than one visit. Additionally, depending on the technology, simulators may require wiring an individual or the use of videos and sensors surrounding the player to record the desired data parameters—variables that may be intimidating, detrimental, and/or cost prohibitive for many golfers of many skill levels.
More simplistic tools also suffer from a variety of deficiencies. For example, some devices mark each ball strike on the device, and thus as the number of strikes increase, it can be difficult to tell which strike was the most recent. Such devices have a very limited number of uses. While some devices exist that allow a location of a ball strike to be removed from the device prior to performing another ball strike, such devices typically require the user to manually “reset” or clear the device of the previous ball strike, for instance by wiping it off with his or her finger before performing another ball strike. In still other embodiments, the devices can require a user to mark a location of the ball strike with a writing utensil, such as a pen, after each swing. Still further, existing technologies designed to properly measure a golfer's swing are limited to obtrusive simulators, time consuming lessons, or expensive hardware with complicated software.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide devices and methods that allow a golfer to know a location of a ball strike after each swing, and which can record more ball strikes using a single device than existing devices. It is also desirable to provide devices and methods that allow a user to perform multiple strikes in a row and see the ball strikes for each swing without having that view impeded by previous ball strikes or having to perform extra steps such as wiping or marking the club face manually before performing the next ball strike. Still further, it is desirable to provide devices and methods that provide convenient, real-time feedback to the golfer so that the golfer can make adjustments to his or her swing in real-time.